Middle East Roundup: April 18, 2017

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UN: Allies knew of Jewish Holocaust years earlier than previously known

(JNS.org) Newly released United Nations documents reveal that the Allied powers knew about the Jewish Holocaust carried out by Hitler’s Nazi regime at least two-and-a-half years earlier than previously thought.

As early as December 1942, the United States, the United Kingdom and the former Soviet Union were aware that at least two millions Jews were massacred by the Nazi regime, according to the British media outlet The Independent. And an additional five million Jews were at risk of being murdered.

Despite knowing of the ongoing Jewish Holocaust, the Allied powers did little to intervene.

“The major powers commented [on the mass murder of Jews] two-and-a-half years before it is generally assumed. It was assumed they learned this when they discovered the concentration camps, but they made this public comment in December 1942,” said Dan Plesch, author of the book, Human Rights After Hitler.

The documents also show that the Allied powers had prepared to indict Hitler and high-ranking Nazi officials for war crimes.

In response to the new Holocaust revelation, Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust remembrance center published a statement on its website saying, “information regarding mass murders of Jews began to reach the free world soon after these actions began in the Soviet Union in late June 1941, and the volume of such reports increased with time.”

“Notwithstanding this, it remains unclear to what extent Allied and neutral leaders understood the full import of their information. The utter shock of senior Allied commanders who liberated camps at the end of the war may indicate that this understanding was not complete.”

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Record numbers of Jews ascend Temple Mount during Passover 2017

(JNS.org) A record number of Jews – approximately 1,600 – visited Temple Mount in Jerusalem during the seven-day Passover holiday this year, breaking last year’s record of 1,015 during the same time, according to non-profit organization Yirah.

Additionally, a record number of Jewish visits to Temple Mount in a single day – 495 – also occurred during the Passover holiday. That exceeds the previous record of 448 visits set during last year’s Sukkot festivities.

The highest number of Jewish visits to Temple Mount was also set during Sukkot 2016, with 1,611, recorded visits to the site.

The Jordanian Islamic Waqf tightly controls access by Jews and non-Muslims to the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site, under an arrangement following the 1967 Six Day War, when Israel gained control of the Temple Mount. Jewish and non-Muslim visitors are only allowed to ascend during very specific times during the week and the entrance may be closed without notice, even when scheduled to be open.

Meanwhile, three Jewish visitors were arrested at the site for openly praying, in accordance with the status quo currently maintained at the sensitive holy site which forbids non-Muslim prayer and open demonstrations of worship.

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Hezbollah terrorists retreat from Israel’s border with heavy artillery

(JNS.org) Fighters with the Lebanon-based terror organization Hezbollah have reportedly begun retreating from Lebanon’s southern border with Israel, according to a Syrian news agency.

The Syrian news agency Al-Ittihad reported April 13 that the border was being evacuated following demands made by the U.S. State department.

On April 11, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the terror organization must cease its “military operations in Syria in support of the [Syrian] regime,” adding that, “Hezbollah forces have helped the Syrian [regime] implement its brutality against its own people and also caused instability in Lebanon.”

According to the Syrian news agency, Hezbollah had begun retreating from a stronghold in the Qalamoun Mountains a week prior to the U.S. military airstrike of a Syrian air force base April 6.

Approximately 300 Hezbollah terrorists have left 14 different positions in the area of Quneitra, near to Israel’s Golan Heights, according to several sources, the Syrian news agency reported. The terrorists reportedly left the area in heavy artillery including tanks and armored vehicles, heading towards the Syrian capital of Damascus.

“Five vehicles accompanied by a number of… machine guns crossed the border from Lebanon and we believe that there were senior figures from Hezbollah or senior Iranian officials,” sources told Al-Ittihad.

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